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Building hope in northern Uganda

The Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre (NUYDC) is a Commonwealth supported project dedicated to helping young people readjust after more than two decades of civil war in the region

Images

  • A young boy from Gulu in Northern Uganda sits beside a fishpond built and managed by a local community with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre (NUYDC) is a project dedicated to helping young people readjust after more than two decades of civil war in the region.
  • At the Gulu Centre, catering students relax after lessons. It opened in 2007, and offers training in a range of subjects, including basic business and life skills. Up to 140 students are currently receiving tuition. Many of them walk for miles to attend classes.
  • Youth unemployment and lack of education and skills will impact on long-term stability in Northern Uganda, say development agencies. Here young men complete part of their metalwork course. Many students hope to get work and earn enough money to return to school. Education was severely disrupted during the war.
  • A teacher guides two students in the tailoring class. Joseph Okema, the Project Manager says the Centre hopes to get a contract from school uniform suppliers. It is important that the training can yield jobs or self-employment opportunities through small business ventures, he says.
  • This young woman’s parents died when she was nine years old. She grew up in one of the many camps for internally displaced people in the area. At the height of the conflict, some two million people were displaced from their homes.
  • A fisherman feeds his fish at dusk in Gulu. One of the Centre’s most successful projects has been its three fishponds – dug and maintained by a community fishing group of 19 women and 13 men. The farmers are able to catch sufficient fish to supply and sell to local people. The group has plans to expand and create a further three ponds on the surrounding land.
  • In the coming weeks, the Centre will receive its first chicks, which will be housed in this newly-built poultry block. At present, most of the poultry produce consumed in he region is imported. It is hoped that the eggs and chicken meat can be sold locally. The Centre is also cultivating beans. Food security remains a priority in the area, which is suffering one of the worst droughts for a decade.
  • Outreach work is an important part of the Centre’s activities. Here young people gather for a community debate in Awach on whether or not it should be compulsory to test for HIV. Over 80 peer counsellors trained by the Centre cover eight regional districts. This includes talks, debates and shows on sexual and reproductive health.
  • After the debate, villagers line up to get tested for HIV in a makeshift laboratory. The technician offers counselling and testing. It takes just 10 minutes for them to find out their status.
  • During the war, tens of thousands of children were abducted to fight for the Lord’s Resistance Army. Many children were born in the camps and have known no life outside them. But people are now returning to their villages and the camps are closing down. Projects like the NUYDC offer hope to this post-conflict generation.
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A young boy from Gulu in Northern Uganda sits beside a fishpond built and managed by a local community with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre (NUYDC) is a project dedicated to helping young people readjust after more than two decades of civil war in the region.
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A young boy from Gulu in Northern Uganda sits beside a fishpond built and managed by a local community with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre (NUYDC) is a project dedicated to helping young people readjust after more than two decades of civil war in the region.

photo : © Victoria Holdsworth / Commonwealth Secretariat

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